Definitely a big tech thing I don’t miss. At a startup everyone is trying to make the company succeed vs pet projects, so giving advice about architectural decisions or helping fellow engineers with areas you have more expertise in is often welcomed. There are always pros and cons, but that type of culture is so much more fun. Even on hard days I love working with people who want to help each other.

Even in startups, sometimes you’ve just got to let the consequences of the things you’ve warned about happen.

I’ve lost too much sleep and fought too many battles and lost too much clout over the years trying to make sure bad things didn’t happen. “Nobody could have foreseen this” is still said, even if there’s a ton of evidence, recommendations, pleading, etc, to keep it from happening.

Yeah, I’m sure it happens everywhere. And I’m no expert, I worked in state government, fed R&D, big tech and a startup and I feel like the big tech environment was a lot more of the “I need an audience to make my point” in a big staff or strategy meeting vs the small swarms where we just need to get this thing working environment. But it depends on the startup and depends on the people. I’m sure the same goes for teams in big tech but I assume the politics plays more in survival there.

Not always. I had to learn early in my career that sometimes when the founder says they want your honest opinion on something, your expertise, they're lying and just what you to affirm their ideas. You don't, they get mad, and eventually they have to do a layoff or fire you, simply for disagreeing

Everyone likes to pretend it doesn't happen. But ask around and you'll find many people have experienced it

I haven’t been burned yet, but I’ll keep that in mind!

I built this app because I've always wanted to know what a synchronized crowd would sound like beyond stadium size. The app is privacy-focused (no tracking, no ads, no hidden pixels, minimal information used). Only an organizer needs an account, all participants join via QR code with no data collection. If you're interested in testing in a large group, send a message to the support email and I'll send free codes.

WordsUnite.us a fully vibe coded chant synchronization platform. So far, huge failure. But it’s impressive that I didn’t have to write any of the code! Lots of spec writing and validating with Claude Code. Claude wrote it all. https://wordsunite.us